New York City Mayor Eric Adams arrives for a court hearing at Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse in New York City on Feb. 19, 2025.
Eduardo Munoz Alvarez | Getty Images
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday that she will not remove embattled New York City Mayor Eric Adams from office “at this time.”
But Hochul announced a plan to impose strict guardrails on her fellow Democrat’s administration.
“I have determined that I will not commence removal proceedings at this time,” Hochul said at a news conference to discuss Adams, who was indicted last year on federal criminal corruption charges.
“It is up to the voters of this city to determine” whether to retain Adams or choose a new mayor, the governor said.
The governor on Tuesday held a series of meetings with political figures to discuss Adams’ fate. A day earlier, four New York City deputy mayors announced they had resigned, a move that Hochul said “raises serious questions about the long-term future of this Mayoral administration.”
Since being indicted, Adams has sought to curry favor with President Donald Trump, a Republican widely unpopular in the heavily Democratic city.
The Department of Justice last week asked a judge in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to dismiss the case.
The judge, Dale Ho, conducted a hearing on that request Wednesday but ended it by saying he would rule later.
Seven federal prosecutors, including the interim Manhattan U.S. Attorney, resigned in protest of an order by a top DOJ official to dismiss the case.
The DOJ argues that the dismissal is necessary to avoid harming Adams’ ability to cooperate with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies and his ability to seek reelection this year.
Adams last week agreed to allow federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents onto Rikers Island, the city’s largest jail complex.
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